The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1887-04-22

d [HHt4Hf She Was I0NeEH NlSfe CHILD.
SUCH As yoa OK reader WING have lltle
ones 1t bun own would wish II keep At
school, with no thought 81 even boyish
beaux, for several years to come. The
grandmother had not appeared to me to
be any more than woman grown, and
indeed she told me she was only twent
seventhe age, / believe, at which
young ladies begin to consider single
women old maids--until they reach that
age themselves, when they push the line
little further along the scale of time.
The baby's mother was only thirteen, she
said, and added, THAT is nothing in
italy,
In what write about the italian colony
want to be credited with regard for
accuracy unaffected by prejudice, audit is
necessary for the reader to remember that
while the mode of life of these colonists
is so deplorable, it does not represent the
habits of the people of Italy as mass,
nor should it be forgotten that we have
in New York many merchants, artists
and men in various walks of life
who are also Italian and who are as
polished, digniied, and in all ways adj
mirable as any citizen we possess. But
the Italian colony of Mulberry and Crosby
streets is made up of emigrants from the
lowest ranks of the peasantry, and even
of the vagabondage and pauperism of
Italy. They have made their quarter"
as the district they live in is called, the
most disgusting and repulsive part of the
city, where filth and squalor reign as
they never did anywhere else in any pc
Rod of the city's history. The streets
reek with refuse, the houses are grimy
outside and in, the air is the very breath
of decay, and the people match their
surroundings The Italians of this grade
are the railroad laborers, organ-grinders,
street-sweepers and sidewalk peddlers of
this city and neighborhood. A very large
number work for the city, loading, trim
ming and dumping the scows of the street.
cleaning department that carry the
sweepings of the streets and the contents
of the ash barrels a few miles out to sea,
there to deliver their cargoes to the
waves 1t is understood that these la
borers work for what would seem to us
next to nothing day-sixty or seventy
cents, it is said. But of this there is pta,
certainty, since the city deals with bossess
or contractors, who provide the neces-
sary men and make their own terms with
them and with the city. It is said that
no other laborer except the Italian has
ever been found wh5 would perform the
work, or could Do so for any great length
of time-it is so nauseating But the
Italians seem rather to enjoy it. Scores
of times have seen them on the floating
hills of refuse, some eating the bread or
other food thrown out of the houses,
some smoking placidly, some playing
cards, and some fiat on their backs on the
debris, dreaming. But the majority were
always raking in the cargo of the city's
leavings in the hope of finding yaluables.
AT first you wouldn't think they would
be very well repaid for such searching,
and when you have looked into the
matter you win scarcely believe half the
tales you will hear of the finding of
diamonds and watches and rolls of bills
and pieces of plate by these human moles.
But suspect that a great deal more than
one would think is picked up in this
way. When you come to add together
all the careless sweepings by servant
girls, all the coins that unaccountably go
astray, all the valuables that thieves
throw away when pursued through the
streets, all the loosely clasped bracelets
that fall from ladies' wrists, and all the
innumerable mischances that may befal
the million sorts of valuables there are
in city of million and half of souls
=
it is that once in a while one of these
poor fellows comes upon glittering
jewel that brings Italy vastly nearer to
him than it seems to you on the map, for
| it is a curious fact that these peasants
only come to earn and save few hum
dred dollars (even 5000 satisfies many)
wherewith to go back and live in gilt
edged ease for several years. have
heard an Italian rave like poet about
the delightful life he was going to lead
at home on $780, seated in bower of
roses with clusters of grapes within reach
and endless goblets of wine through the
bottoms of which to view the everlasting
blueness of the Italian sky. He expected
to loaf for five and perhaps ten years in
this way; indeed, he said he hoped death
would come before his little fortune
should all vanish.
But the most peculiar life is that on
"the Dumps" as we call those wharves
that be ong to the STRENGTHENING depart
ment. Here the trimmers are employed
In nothing else has humanity in this city
ever approached the level of the rat so
closely as these trimmers come to it. 1t
used to be matter for wonder to us that
there were found those who would work
at sorting city rags. To certain shabby
frame buildings, on the outskirts of the
three cities that really compose New
York, the rag-pickers repair every day to
dump and sell the filching and purchases
with which they have filed their bags.
In the hillocks of textile refuse thus col
lected, in unventilated apartments,
women and girls spend every day in as
sorting the different kinds of rags beneath
them. The air is foul, the rags are in
conditions such as only rare magma
ton can conceive, and death and disease
Turk amid the handling Of them. But
that is choice vocation as compared
with this of the trimmers.
The garbage and ash dumps are sit
uated handily along the river fronts and
consist of ordinary wharves upon which
are built low platforms for the ash carts
to ascend, thence to discharge their con-
tents into the scows moored at the bulk
heads. AS these loads fall in the floating
boxes, some one must trim or level the
stuff so as to balance the boats properly
in the water. The men who do this work
are Italians They are paid>a trifie day